A Slight Miscalculation
by Puzzledhermit
Summary: The Doctor took his time getting back and things have changed.10Rose, a reunion fic, but that is not the point.


Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, and thank god for that. This ignores Utopia but assumes that Jack met up with the Doctor at some point. Also I don't feel like writing Martha so she is not around, you can decide what happened to her.

This is unbetaed apologies for any errors.

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"Okay, Jack, this is it! You might want to hold on to something," with that the Doctor flicked a tiny harmless looking switch on the console and the whole ship began to shake. Several minutes later all movement stopped and he began to extricate himself from the rather sizable pile of spare parts which had landed on him mid-flight. "Well," he said brightly, bouncing to his feet, "That went better than expected."

"You expected it to be _worse_? I almost died!" Jack pointed out, as he made his way back to the center of the room.

"Oh, come now, it isn't like it would have stuck, and look at the positives, last time I was here the Tardis nearly died for good, now we've got full power, I'd say that's worth a shaky landing." the Doctor moved to the console screen and began pulling up data, "As soon as I finish this diagnostic we need to find Rose, I've wasted enough time as it is."

"About that Doc, how do you know we've made it to the right time, you said before the Tardis didn't work here; there and back, that's it."

"The simplified version is that I am a genius, the slightly less simplified version is that everyone who travels in the Tardis becomes a part of her timeline and I used that connection to take us to Rose at the present point in that timeline"

"So it will have been 15 years for her too?"

"Yes," he ran a hand through his hair, "I would make it minutes for her if I could, but that would go back on the Tardis' own timeline"

"Blah, blah, explosions, end of the universe, I know."

"Right then, that's done," he strode to door, "Jack, welcome to Pete's World," and flung it open with a manic grin.

The two men stopped short as soon as they stepped through the door, "I thought this place was the same as our 21st century earth;" Jack peered up at the hover cars whizzing overhead.

"Torchwood," the Doctor said grimly, "They're public here, they must be augmenting things with alien technology," he paused, then returned to his usual chipper demeanor "Luckily we're going there anyway. We'll just pop in grab Rose, take care of this, and be back to our Universe in time for tea. Allonz-y Jack, Allonz-y!"

_ Doctor's Perspective (sort of)_

It was too easy, he thought, they'd just walked into Torchwood Tower and asked to see Rose Tyler, and the receptionist sent them right up, no questions, just "Floor 42, office 12." Maybe it was Jack, she did seem pretty pleased when he stayed behind to flirt, but that still didn't seem that right, no matter how big his ego, Jack couldn't dazzle someone into passiveness in all of 10 seconds. Just then he reached the door of the office and all his pondering stopped, the door was open and there she was, back facing him and gesturing animatedly as she talked on the phone, 15 years and there she was, if he weren't frozen with shock he would have shouted and leapt with joy, and then she turned around.

"Thomas, I'll have to get back to you, something just came up… no, nothing world ending…no…you too, don't forget that report," and she calmly set the phone in its cradle, "Doctor. This is a surprise," she said evenly and a long silence stretched between them, as he tried to say something, anything.

"Hey Doc, are you sure we can't make it back, I got number," he registered the voice as Jack walked in, and the stillness that had seemed to cover everything was suddenly broken when Rose ran across the room and leapt into Jack's arms "I thought you were dead!" she cried as he spun her around.

Well this wasn't at all what he had expected to happen; actually it was almost exactly what he had expected, but he had planned on being the one with Rose in his arms, which would then lead to a long overdue and dramatic kiss, he was rather glad that part hadn't happened yet, but decided to intercede before it did.

"Yes Rose, I missed you too," he said loudly, "How did I get here you ask? Oh just bent the laws of the universe slightly and managed to keep from destroying all of existence in the process, you know, just to see you."

"I get the hint" she said pulling away from Jack with a smile, "and I'll have you know it's been a long time since I last saw you, but I always knew you would be alright, you are the Doctor after all. Jack though, has been dead to me for so long that he gets more amazement, no matter how impressive your jiggery-pokery with the universe was," and then pulled him into a tight hug.

"Now then Ms. Tyler," he said, speaking to the top of her head, "We need to have a talk about this technology, it has advanced way too much in 15 years, been giving out the alien tech have we?" She stepped back from his embrace with a look of confusion, "15 years? Doctor it has been much longer than that, but then you've never been that great at parking the Tardis."

"What? That's impossible, the Tardis was programmed to bring us to the same point in your timeline that we were in within ours, any other would have destroyed everything, and I for one am feeling very much alive right now. And you Rose Tyler," he delighted in saying her name, "you don't look a day over, well actually," he looked her over thoroughly, "you don't look a day over 21; been having some work done then? I would have though Cassandra turned you off all that."

"Oi!" she said, lightly smacking his arm, "I have not had work done! You should know as well as I do that time runs differently between the universes, 15 years in yours could match up to, say, 200 years here; I…I seem to have a problem with dying."

"Rose, oh my Rose, I am so sorry" and he pulled her into another hug.

"Doctor, it isn't your fault," she pulled away again and settled back against her desk, "You told me once to have a fantastic life, and I did, I am actually; I've been head of Torchwood for the past 100 years, they asked me before that, but I wanted to stay in field work, I got to be with my little sister as she grew up, and I've even been married a few times. I've lived a life, I've lived several lives, and I don't regret any of it." She sighed, "Look, if you don't have some sort of time limit on your stay here, or need to stop some sort of dastardly plot, why don't we go somewhere and talk? My office isn't very comfortable and I want to know how you got here and what you've doing since we said good-bye, and Jack I need to hear all about what happened to you; is the Tardis nearby?"

"That would be fantastic," he said, "lead the way Jack."

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A/N: The Doctor is intentionally a bit soppier than cannon, I wanted to contrast him with Rose who has obviously gotten on with things and is no longer an emotional wreck. Jack was sort of useless this chapter, but I needed someone for the Doctor to talk to, and he'll probably have more to do later. I'll try to get more of this up soon, but I'm a slow writer and really need to stop procrastinating on work related things, so I don't know when I'll have time to finish. Thank you for reading, and please let me know what you liked or what you hated, constructive crit. is always fantastic. 


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